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Sunday, May 6, 2012

The Free Press vs. The Controlled Press

WorldNetDaily which seems to like the moniker WND lately has not gotten a lot of respect because some of their articles are a bit fringe. I think the greatest reason for lack of respect though their consistent reporting of facts with a huge slant of Conservative lenses. This lack of respect has been displayed toward WND especially by the Obama Administration which apparently is censoring WND by refusing press credentials that more mainstream news outlets are receiving.

WND’s U.N. reporter, Stewart Stogel, is a 25-year veteran U.N. correspondent who has worked for ABC News, NBC News and been featured in Time and Newsweek. It wasn’t so much Stogel who was denied as it was whom he represents – WND.

Here’s how the U.S. government makes decisions like this: Stogel requested permission to attend the event by asking Mark Kornblau, director of communications and spokesman for the United States Mission to the United Nations.

“Would appreciate the opportunity to attend Rice’s press reception as her Security Council presidency ends for April,” he wrote to Kornblau.

The response?

“When you start treating our Mission with professional courtesy and respect, we will be happy to reciprocate,” wrote Kornblau.

Did I make it clear that Kornblau is a U.S. government employee – paid by U.S. taxpayers? Perhaps he hasn’t been briefed on the meaning of the First Amendment. Perhaps he thinks it’s his job to keep out reporters who might ask troublesome questions that could prove embarrassing to his bosses.

That’s why I titled this column, “The free press vs. the controlled press.” That’s really what it’s all about. Most of the corporate media establishment will jump through hoops for the government and inter-governmental agencies just for the chance to be part of the game.

Not WND. And this is the proof. WND takes seriously the role of the free press to be a watchdog on government fraud, waste, abuse, corruption and lies. Kornblau and his bosses understand this. And it’s time more Americans understood what Michael Savage so adeptly characterized as the “government-media complex.”

A surprised Stogel – one of the most senior U.N. correspondents, who values his long and cordial working relationships with everyone from John Bolton to Ban Ki-moon – told his WND editors he’s never experienced this kind of treatment from any administration except Obama’s. In addition to writing for WND, he files for the Miami Herald and London Daily Mail.

More recently, WND was denied access by the Department of Transportation to a routine news conference in which then-Secretary Mary Peters defended the controversial Bush administration program allowing Mexican trucks to travel freely on U.S. roads.

Government is out of control – and, often, nobody’s watching. That’s the way government and intergovernmental bureaucracies and agencies like the U.N. prefer it. But worse yet, the press is in bed with the very people they’re supposed to be covering.

We may not always be able to get in the door. But that will never stop us from bringing you the truth.

I hope you appreciate that – and the sacrifices we have to make to do our jobs.

If you do, you might want to consider making a contribution to WND’s legal defense fund. We not only have to fight battles against government secrecy, we also have to fight battles with blacklisting from the clique of establishment pseudo-journalists who think of themselves as the palace guard. It literally costs millions to do what we do. If you appreciate it, understand there is a high cost to honest truth-seeking.